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Hastur
According to legend, the oldest of the Domains, the oldest of the seven great Comyn dynasties and the progenitor of the other six. Hastur was formerly the royal family; however, some centuries before the Sharra Rebellion, the direct line (Hastur of Hastur) allowed the (by then largely ceremonial) kingship to pass to a collateral line, Hastur of Elhalyn, thereafter known as the Elhalyn Domain. Since then the reigning Hastur Lord has been automatically Regent of the Kingdom, Warden of the Crown, and the true power behind the throne, exercising a deciding vote in Comyn Council deliberations. The very name implies charisma in its holder even if (s)he is not a Domain Lord. However, the word of the Hastur Regent is not automatically the law of the land. Like the other ruling families of Darkover they have a particular form of laran that was bred into the family line. The Hastur gift is that of the living matrix, the ability to use laran without the use of a matrix. Hasturs were said to make very strong and skilled Keepers because of this inbred laran. The family crest of the Hasturs is a silver fir tree on a blue background. The family motto is "Permanedál" ("I shall remain") or "Permanedo" ("Here we remain") The first of this name was called "Son of Aldones who was Son of Light," a legendary and possibly mythical ancestor of all the Comyn. The story goes that he married Cassilda (aka Robardin's half-chieri ''daughter by Kierestelli). See also the "Ballad of Hastur and Cassilda." This story was disbelieved by Kermiac Aldaran and Bob Kadarin, since they learned (from TE Intelligence records) about the original Lost Ship which landed on the planet with personnel bearing some of the same names which later became common among the Comyn. The name Hastur ultimately derives from Terran (Sp.) Asturias, the name of a province in Spain, via the Catalan name Di Asturien, which was the family name of the medical officer in the original DL colony'. The di Asturien family name still survived as late as the Sharra Rebellion, and its holders were reputed to regard the Hasturs as newcomers.' The name Syrtis is also associated with Hastur. The Hastur Domain is located in the foothills of the Hellers'. Its central estate and castle are at Carcosa. This site dates back at least to the time of King Regis V, '''but it is not known whether it antedates the Ages of Chaos. One of the Hastur kings brought the Ages of Chaos to a close by persuading the remaining Comyn lords to sign the Compact, at a penstroke ending centuries of civil wars which had exterminated some Comyn families and killed off much of the population, threatening to destroy the ecology, etc.; and since that time there have been no large scale wars on Darkover. Stefan (aka Istvan) Hastur made an agreement with the TE authorities establishing the Thendara site for Terran Zone, Trade City, and starport development, supplanting the old Caer Donn settlement (in the Hellers in the Aldaran Domain), which was too constricted to allow larger ships. The length of the initial contract for the starport at Thendara was 500 years. Hasturs are typically tall, "pure" Comyn types with the usual fiery red hair which has a tendency to gray earlier than in other families. With occasional exceptions, they have not been six-fingered for many generations. The Hasturs have a reputation for never telling lies. ("The word of a Hastur.")